During my
growing up days, whenever I visited my friend, her family would offer me a
carrot juice. I was not too fond of this juice but they would inform me that it
was good for my eyes.
But is there a
truth in it? Or is it just a myth. Most of my friends need reading glasses,
irrespective of gallons of carrot juice they might have had.
There is
nothing magical about carrots alone. It’s the vitamin A within the carrot that
is so important for maintenance of eye health. If the person is deprived of
vitamin A for too long, the outer segment of the eye’s photoreceptors begin to
deteriote and normal chemical process involved in vision can no longer occur.
But wait, that
does not mean that you will take an over dose of the carrots. No, don’t do
that. Eating too many carrots can cause the skin to appear yellow-orange due
to a built-up of blood coroten levels.
Many centuries
ago, there were purple carrots that grew wild in the bushes with mutated
versions occasionally popping up including the yellow and white carrots. They
were thin, spindly and didn’t taste great. They were mostly used for medicinal
purpose. Purple and white carrots still
grow wild in Aghanistan where they are used to produce a strong alcoholic
beverage.
The orange carrots
which we are familiar with, wasn’t cultivated until Dutch growers in the late
16th century took mutant strains of the purple carrot, including
yellow and white carrots and gradually developed them into sweet, plump, orange
variety that we have today.
Having just one
recipe for every vegetable becomes very boring. It is interesting to combine
with different vegetables to recreate a complete new dish and one such
combination that I like having is carrots with lotus stem.
Carrot and lotus stem
Ingredients
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
100 grams lotus stem, sliced diagonally
100 grams carrots, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1teaspoon ginger, grated
1 Green chilies, finely chopped
1teaspoon turmeric powder
2teaspoon coriander powder
1 cup fenugreek leaves, chopped
½ cup coriander leaves, finely chopped
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon Oil
Method
- In a
pan, heat oil and add crushed garlic.
- Add
chopped lotus stem, chopped carrots, tomatoes, ginger, green chilies,
turmeric powder, coriander powder, salt, fenugreek leaves and coriander
leaves.
- Cover
and cook till vegetables are tender. Do not add water.
- Serve
with freshly roasted chappatis
